In those days spirits were brave, the stakes were high, men were real men, women were real women and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri.

See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

If you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language.

"What's up?" "I don't know," said Marvin, "I've never been there."

There is no point in using the word 'impossible' to describe something that has clearly happened.

The lights were off so that his heads could avoid looking at each other because neither of them was currently a particular engaging sight, nor had they been since he had made the error of looking into his soul. It had indeed been an error. It had been late one night-- of course. It had been a difficult day-- of course. There had been soulful music playing on the ship's sound system-- of course. And he had, of course, been slightly drunk. In other words, all the usual conditions that bring on a bout of soul searching had applied, but it had, nevertheless, clearly been an error.